


a sharp break / a clean fix

by starbooms



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Confessions, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, M/M, UMMMMMM I NEED RENGA TO BE SOFT SO HERE WE GO, and who is the sole reason they talked, langa's pov, she's a keeper, shout out to reki's sister rikka who i just gave a name to, soft gooey moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 03:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30083016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbooms/pseuds/starbooms
Summary: “Um,” Langa shuffled a bit at the door. “My board broke.” he started. And then, again. When he saw the flinch. “But I’m not just here for that! We’re broken… too. And,” he swallowed. “I want to fix that… too.” and finally, desperately, as if another whisper could somehow save it all, “please.”
Relationships: Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki
Comments: 15
Kudos: 219





	a sharp break / a clean fix

**Author's Note:**

> this is for my dear friend sparky (@_sparkbug) who asked for a little soft renga moment post episode 9 where they fix their relationship. and because i love sparky with all my heart, and i love feeding renga nation, here we are <3

It’s broken. 

Chipped, cracked, jagged pieces. Splintered. A rather deep, sharp splinter that zig zags and blooms open like a wound. A gaping wound. It throbbed. Langa felt the _snap_ of his board, and the pain that followed, throughout his entire body. 

Normally, after winning, he’d feel a buzzing. The soft yet powerful build up of a generator whirring to life. Or the feeling of an oven burner flickering once, twice, and then boom-you have a flame. The buzzing took over his entire body sometimes. So loud he couldn’t really hear or focus on anything else but the way his body felt so, electrical. A live wire. Snapping and firing off sparks. 

And the heartbeat. He’d feel that too. Louder and rising above the buzzing waves. Pounding and pounding. He’d feel the heartbeat too. 

He hadn’t felt that in a while, though. Not until today’s race.

But the board, it’s broken. 

And while he had the heartbeat, it was so loud-it was echoing in his ears and rattling in his chest-the person who could fix it, was gone. 

_Reki. Reki. Reki._

Over and over again he saw red hair and amber eyes. A blue headband. But then, he thought of rain. Pouring rain. The kind of rain that makes your clothes stick to your skin and your socks all soggy. The kind of rain that’s heavy but doesn’t drown out the sound of things breaking. Decomposing. Falling apart. 

_“Then have Reki fix it. It’ll be alright if it’s you two.”_

Joe’s words echoed amongst the buzzing and the pounding heartbeat. Louder than the crowd yelling and chattering about his win. _SNOW WON! AGAINST JOE? THAT’S INSANE. HE’S INSANE._ Nothing mattered but the splintered. The break. The snap of the board. 

_Boards are expendable_ . _It’s faster if you bought one._

Impossible. _It’s not good if it’s not this one._

 _Reki._ Maybe. Maybe he could go find him. 

Or maybe not. Langa clutched the board, eyebrows furrowed. Reki wouldn’t want to see him. Reki hadn’t wanted to see him for a month. Four weeks. Twenty eight days. 

What if he went to Reki’s door again, and it wouldn’t open?

The buzzing deadens. His heart squeezed something awful. 

_LANGA!_

His heartbeat stirred. Pounding again. It was only a brief moment, but Reki was there. Reki was at his beef. And Reki had called out to him. And he said his name. And it wasn’t laced with pain, or hurt, or surrounded by heavy downpour. It was loud. And bright. And brilliant. 

Langa was determined. He grabbed his broken skateboard and hurried through the crowd and out of the warehouse. 

“Snow! Where are you going?” Joe called out, but Langa didn’t turn back. 

He had to go. 

He had to find Reki. 

-

Doors were sort of terrifying.

You never knew what would be on the other side. 

Most of the time, the opening was pleasant. His mom would be on the other side. Working at her laptop or making dinner. He’d smell the bubbling of a pot or the scent of her maple syrup candle wafting through the air. 

One time, he opened a door and his mother was on the floor sobbing. Another time the door opened and it was the last time he ever saw his father again. 

The last time he stood at this particular door, Reki’s door, it opened-but the person he wanted to see wasn’t there. 

Fear kept him rooted. Grounded to the spot. He came so far on determination and pure desire alone, but it seemed when the moment came. He wasn’t sure what to do. He felt so many things in the moment. He felt his pulse racing. He felt his throat grow dry. He felt the sweat on the back of his neck. And the rising prickles of tension on his skin. He felt a lot of things. 

He wondered, briefly. If Reki would even want to see him. If the broken board was a good enough reason to come find him. If Reki would fix it. 

Maybe he’d get mad. And ask why it took a broken board for him to try and fix their broken relationship.

The thought makes him feel incredibly scared. 

Then, he heard Reki’s voice again. The _LANGA_ that rang in the air like birds singing over the morning horizon as they flew from one tree to another. 

And that, made him feel hope. 

Hope, blooming, as he reached out and rang the doorbell. 

He waited for two minutes. He counted every second that passed. Then, Reki’s oldest sister, Rikka, opened the door. 

“Langa! Hi,” Rikka was sunlight. He thought. Like Reki. “Are you here to see Reki?”

“Ah, yeah.” 

She had eyes that were very open. A giant pool of amber that seemed to look at you in whole, rather than parts. Rikka hummed, scooping another spoonful of pudding into her mouth. “Are you guys fighting?”

A twang of pain. He nodded. His throat constricted. 

Rikka sighed around her spoon, “I knew it. He was so sad…” she looked at him expectantly, “Are you here to make up?” she glanced down at the broken board in his arms, then glanced back up to Langa. ”Or are you just here to get that fixed? Cause if it’s not to make up I won’t let you in.”

“No!” his sister’s eyes widened at his outburst, but Langa didn’t care for the why or hows. “No. It’s not just for the board.” he wanted so desperately to be understood. His fingers shook. “It’s Reki. I need to see him. I can’t skate if-” he stopped. Then tried again, “I wanna make up with Reki. I don’t like skating if he’s not there with me.”

Silence fell the same way the quiet comes after a heavy snowstorm. Rikka took another big spoonful of pudding, regarding him closely. And for a minute, Langa feels a horrible bile rise in his throat. He failed again. He’s misunderstood. He didn’t say what he meant properly. And now-

“Come on,” he felt fingers wrap around his wrist. Rikka pulled him forward. “Let’s go find my stupid big brother.”

Reki’s in his bedroom. Fiddling with some skateboards. His sister didn’t even knock. Just barged right in. 

“Hey!” Reki spun around, ready to tell off his sister but his words died. His eyes widened, and Langa felt nervous. Felt jittery. Shuffled on the balls of his feet. Langa looked at him, then his eyes dropped to the broken skateboard. And his lips immediately pursed into a frown .

“Reki!” Langa called out. Because he didn’t want Reki to think he was here just for his board. He didn’t want Reki to ever think that their friendship, their relationship, meant nothing to him at all. That it’s not the fact that the board was broken that brought him here, but the fact that it was _this board_ . The board _Reki_ had made for him. The only board Langa ever wanted to skate on. The only board Langa ever wanted to use. Because Reki made it. Reki made it for him. Reki thought of the design for him. Reki painted it for him. Reki. Reki. Reki. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be at S?” Reki’s voice is cold. But Langa has experienced colder. 

“Oh my God,” Rikka rolled her eyes. She pushed Langa forward and then stomped over to her brother. She rubbed at his hair several times with her free hand. 

“Hey! Stop that!”

“Big brother _you_ stop that,” she huffed. “Your,” she glanced at Langa and snorted, “ _friend_ is here. The one you wanna make up with soooo badly. The one you’ve been sighing about for like, ever! Stop being dumb and talk!” 

Rikka finalized her point by taking a big bite of her pudding, then turned on her heel and stomped out. Before she left, she pointed her spoon at Langa. So close to his nose he had to lean back a bit. 

“And you,” she narrowed her eyes. “If you hurt my Big Brother again I’m coming for you. I know a guy,” she wagged the spoon in his face for good measure then left. 

Langa stood at the door. Reki sat on the ground. And it wasn’t raining (not like it could indoors) but there was still space between them. A maddening distance between them. That made Langa want to destroy and devour and cross the space so they could never have so much feet between them again. 

“Hi,” he started. 

Reki didn’t look up, but he did mutter a “Hello.”

Langa’s entire body opened up to the little bit of sunlight it was graced with. 

“Um,” he shuffled a bit at the door. “My board broke.” he started. And then, again. When he saw the flinch. “But I’m not just here for that! We’re broken… too. And,” he swallowed. “I want to fix that… too.” and finally, desperately, as if another whisper could somehow save it all, “please.” 

Reki fiddled with the screwdriver in his hands. Turning it around in his fingers. A skateboard rested in his lap. He didn’t have his headband on either, Langa noticed. But he was still wearing the hoodie he had on at S. 

“Bring it here. Let me see the damage,” Reki stuck out his hand, not looking at Langa.

But that was enough. Langa ran around and sat right in front of Reki. 

Reki jumped a bit, but he didn’t turn away. Not at all, in fact. He stuck out his hand and Langa took it as an offer to hand over the board. He did. The splintered board. But Joe’s words resound in his mind. 

_It’ll be alright if it’s you two._

“What happened to it?” Reki held the board up, examining the two pieces. 

“It broke. After I crossed the finish line and twisted my body to stop. It snapped there.” He pointed to the fracture. 

“Probably too much force…” Reki muttered, and then started talking under his breath about concepts Langa never understood. But hearing Reki talk about the science and magic of skateboarding was something he knew he’d never get tired of hearing. 

“Can you fix it?” Langa leaned forward, hope in his eyes. 

“Why not get a new board?” Reki asked instead. 

Langa shook his head. “No. I don’t want a new board. I want to ride the one you made me. Because it has to be yours, Reki. It _has_ to.” he wanted to say so many things and he hated that he wasn’t good with words. He had so many things to say and not enough ways to say it all. 

God, how could he make Reki understand how much he wanted to fix _them_? 

Reki's eyes widened. As if Langa’s words were finally taking root. His cheeks colored and Langa wondered what caused _that_. 

“You’re so-” Reki started. Then stopped. He shook his head and moved the board out of the way. Then he inched himself closer. Langa swallowed. His heart was pounding again. Louder than it did when he was on a skateboard. The same loudness as when Reki had called out to him. “We should talk about. Us.” 

Langa shook his head up and down a thousand times. Reki had to reach out and grab his head, a tiny smile on his face. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. 

“No, it’s ok.” and when Reki smiled this time it was a little wider. Langa kept wondering what he’d have to do to make him smile for real. The big smile he used to see all the time. Reki slightly tugged down his headband, “Um, I guess I-I’m sorry, I should say. For not talking to you about how I was feeling sooner.” 

Langa nodded again, slowly. His cheeks still cradled in Reki’s palms. He wondered if Reki knew, or if he forgot to let go. He hoped Reki wanted to keep them there. 

“Um,” Reki went to remove his hands but Langa wrapped his fingers around his wrist. Holding him close. Reki’s entire face erupted in a blush. “W-What are you doing, Langa?!”

Langa blinked, “Can I not?”

His mothers words hit him then. How if he had someone he liked, he should tell them. And the person he liked, was right there. So he should tell him, right? He should say it, right? 

“I mean-”

 _Apologize first_ , his mind supplied as the appropriate steps. “I’m sorry too.” he cut Reki off. Because he had to say it. He had practiced this over and over. What he’d say to Reki if he ever had another moment to experience Reki looking at him. And Reki talking to him. And Reki being with him. And simply, Reki. “I should have honored our promise. But! I need you to know that. I like skating.” 

Reki’s eyebrows furrowed, “I… know that.”

“I like skating,” he tried again. “Because it’s… what we do together. It-makes me feel, alive. Like how snowboarding makes me feel. And you showed me that! You taught me how to skateboard! And I thought that skating would make things hurt… less. Cause when I skate my heart would pound really really loudly. But it stopped.”

“Your heart stopped?” Reki gasped. 

Langa frowned. “No. I mean, yes. But not like that.” what more could he do to get Reki to understand him? What more could he say? His heart banged at his chest. And that, was his answer. He took one of Reki’s hands and placed it over his chest. Right where his heart was. So Reki could feel through his palm how loudly his heart was beating. “Once you weren’t there, it felt like my heart… stopped. And then you showed up tonight. And you yelled my name. And it hasn’t stopped beating like this ever since.” 

He watched Reki to see his reaction. Feeling his own palms start to sweat because he was so… nervous and worried. Worried that maybe he hadn’t said the right words. Or hadn’t said enough words. He opened his mouth to keep talking, hoping that might work, but Reki’s quiet response stole the breath from his lungs. 

“I can’t believe this. Langa,” Reki started laughing. And Langa wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But then, Reki pulled him forward. Wrapping his arms around his middle and resting his nose into the crook of Langa’s shoulder. Langa’s eyes are wide. He hasn’t been hugged by Reki in 28 days. He nearly forgot how. 

Thankfully, his body didn’t forget. He wrapped his arms around Reki. His fingers curled into the back of his hoodie, gripping tightly. 

_You have to act on it. If you really care._

_Now_ , something told him. Something incessantly told him that now was the time to act. He pulled back to really look at Reki. Who’s eyes were brimming bright like he was about to cry. But it’s not the soul wrenching, gut churning crying he did when it rained and they fell apart. These tears looked like joy incarnate. 

His heartbeat was so loud. 

And to the tune of his thundering heart, Langa had his first kiss. 

He’s never kissed anyone before. So he’s not sure if he did it right. If he applied enough pressure. If his lips were too chapped or too wet. Reki didn’t move. He was frozen to the spot. Langa hoped-ah, maybe he shouldn’t have? God, this really was embarrassing. He felt heat rise to his cheeks. And he pulled back ready to apologize. 

But Reki’s face was full of wonder. So he stopped himself from saying anything. 

“You kissed me,” he whispered. 

“...Ah. Yeah. I did.”

“Oh my-Do you like me?” The end of Reki’s words were a high squeak. The dinosaur on Reki’s headband also looked pretty shocked as well. 

Langa’s cheeks grew even more red, “I do.” 

“Oh… ok. Ok cool. Ok _great_. This is-This was not. I had no-Why did you kiss me!”

“My mom said I should act on it if I like someone,” which really, was pretty sound advice and he should let her know he thought it might actually work. 

“Because your mom…” Reki looked on in disbelief. Shaking his head, he dissolved into laughter again. He rested his head back on Langa’s shoulder, his own shoulders shaking from the force of his laughter. Langa assumed the kiss was ok. And if they weren’t yelling or breaking apart, maybe this was a good thing. Maybe they could fix what was broken. Maybe they could be together again. 

Together. 

“Are we fixed?” Langa needed to know. He had to know. 

Reki raised his head. He stared at Langa, then down to his lips, licking his own. He leaned forward, with a hand on Langa’s cheek, and pecked his lips. Tentative. Experimentally. As if to confirm the new revelation of truth that had bloomed in between the fissures and cracks of their relationship. As if maybe, a step forward would not lead to damnation but rather, salvation. 

Langa sighed into the kiss. It was soft and Reki’s lips were soft and now that he wasn’t so nervous, he could taste the faint flavor of chapstick. Strawberry flavored, maybe? 

When they parted, Reki pressed their foreheads together. His thumb stroked Langa’s cheek, and then dropped down to press firmly against Langa’s chest again. Right above his heart. He laughed. 

“Yeah,” he answered softly. His smile was bright, and warm. The same smile Langa would wake up for to see when they met on their way to school. The same smile Langa looked for when he mastered a trick. The same smile that had warmed him down to the bone. That had thawed him out of the ice. “We’re fixed, Langa. We’re okay.” 

**Author's Note:**

> truly love how sk8 has taken over my brain. if you wanna yell about sk8 nation hit me up on @passionbootys where we can just YELL about the boys who SK8 into the PALM TREES.


End file.
